the expression “von Gottes Gnaden” in a sense exactly coterminous with that of “divine right” as used by Lord Macaulay and later Anglo-Saxon writers and speakers.  The latter, when dealing with things German, not unfrequently fall into the error of mistranslation and are thus at times responsible for national misunderstandings.  The Italian saying, “traduttore, tradittore,” is the expression of a fact too seldom recognized, especially by those whose business it is to interpret, so to speak, one people to another.  Language is as mysterious and elusive a thing as aught connected with humanity, as love, for example, or music; and it may be asserted with some degree of confidence that among every people there are ideas current, and in all departments—­in law, society, art—­which it is impossible exactly to translate into the speech of other nations.  The words used may be the same, but the connotation, all the words imply and suggest, is, perhaps in very important respects, different, and requires a paraphrase, longer or shorter, to explain them.  Take the word “false” in English and “falsch” in German.  They look alike, yet while the English “false” carries with it a moral reproach, the German word, where the context does not explicitly prove otherwise, means simply “incorrect,” “erroneous,” without the moral reproach added.  Accordingly, when a German Chancellor asserts that the statement of an English Minister is “falsch” he does not necessarily mean anything offensive, but only that the English Minister is mistaken.

From this point of view one may regard the statements of the Emperor concerning his kingly office.  He has recently begun to use the expression “German Emperor von Gottes Gnaden,” a thing done by none of his imperial predecessors, and certainly a very curious extension of a doctrine which traditionally only applies to wearers of the crown of Prussia.  But if he does, it may, it is here suggested, be considered further evidence that he employs the terms “von Gottes Gnaden” in a sense other than that of “divine right” as conceived by the Anglo-Saxon.  The German “Gnade” means “favour,” “grace,” “mercy,” “pity,” or “blessing,” and is at times used in direct contrast with the word “Recht,” which means “justice” as well as “right.”  The point, indeed, need hardly be elaborated, and the Emperor’s own explanation of the revelation of God to mankind, with its special reference to his grandfather which we shall find later in the confession of faith to Admiral Hollmann, is highly significant of the sense in which he regards himself and every ruling Hohenzollern as selected for the duties of Prussian kingship.  It is the work of the kingship he is divinely appointed to do of which he is always thinking, not the legal right to the kingship vis a vis his people he is mistakenly supposed to claim.  He regards himself as a trustee, not as the owner of the property.  And is not such a spirit a proper and praiseworthy one?  In a sense